


Dreams

by EliasCrow



Series: Reese [2]
Category: Halo (Video Games) & Related Fandoms
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Nightmares, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-14
Updated: 2018-03-14
Packaged: 2019-03-31 04:58:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13967784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EliasCrow/pseuds/EliasCrow
Summary: When Palmer wakes up from Reese having one of his nightmares, she decides to help him in the way a former Helljumper might.





	Dreams

Palmer woke up to from the sound of Reese sharply inhaling and then jolting upright in bed. She glanced at her watch; it was 0136.  
“Reese?” she said pensively as he sat up on the edge of the bed.  
“I’m okay,” he replied a bit too quickly. It sounded like he was reassuring himself more than her.  
Palmer got up and hugged him from behind.  
“You sure?”  
“Yes Sarah, I’m okay really,” he said unconvincingly. “I’m just gonna go for a walk is all.”  
Palmer knew that if Reese didn’t want to talk about this he wouldn’t. They had made some headway with his nightmares, but there were still a lot of things he wouldn’t even tell her. If he had made up his mind about resolving to go on one of his walks, he would be up the rest of the night, and they’d only just gone to bed a little over an hour ago.  
“What’re you doing?” asked Reese as Palmer got up out of bed and headed to her dresser.  
“If you’re gonna be up, we might as well be productive,” she answered. She pulled a hoodie on and tossed Reese one of his. “We’re going to the gym.”  
“It’s… 0140, you sure?” he said. “Sarah, you get some sleep you’ve got an early rotation tomorrow.”  
“You gonna get up or are you gonna pussy out?”  
Reese raised his eyebrows at the challenge. “Well. Since you put it that way.”

The two of them got dressed and headed off to the gym. They began immediately with a run on the treadmills with elevation masks. At each half mile Palmer harassed Reese for not keeping up, and he pushed harder. After that was bench press and shoulder press, and it was the same thing.  
“You call that weight!?”  
“--guess those arms are just full of air, aren’t they?”  
Weighted pull ups.  
“I’ve seen chair-born rangers do better!”  
Squats.  
“I thought you were a Helljumper!!”  
Through the entire gym for 2 straight hours, Palmer played drill instructor and pushed Reese as hard as she could. By the time they were showered and back in her quarters, Reese passed out as soon as his head hit the pillow.  
Palmer sat in bed and ran her hand over his forehead a few times. His eyes were darting as he went straight into REM sleep, but his face was relaxed and not flinching like she’d seen him do so many times before.  
Eventually she laid down next to him and rested her face on his back between his shoulder blades. She glanced at her watch; it was 0415. She needed to report in the the Wargames briefing room with Buck at 0500 to go over the training plan for the day. She figured she had another fifteen minutes before she would have to start getting ready.

Sarah Palmer allowed herself a small smile as she held Reese a little tighter.  
“Sweet dreams.”


End file.
